LIBRARY DF CONGRESS. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI 



A POEM 



BY A. S. H.xaZ^ . 




PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1878. 






Copyright, 1878, by J. B. Lll'PlNCOTT & Co. 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



I. 

\ WESTERN shore and marshy plain between, 
Girt by a crumbling wall, a city stands 
Alone. Men say there was none other seen 
So joyous or so fair, in all those lands. 
When decked as for a bride by royal hands, 
Her excellence was as some jewel rare, 
That many crowns had coveted to wear. 



A FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

Like to a brilliant bound about her brow, 
Upon the darkening waters blazed her light, 

For those who watched about the spray-wet brow, 
To catch its distant flashings through the night ; 
Or safe within her circling arms, the white 

Ships slept with folded wings, a happy hour 

At rest from baffling winds and Thetis' power. 

But drifting sands have shut her from the sea. 

Whose murmuring waters washed erstwhile her 
feet, 

And cool dim woods are stirred with melody 
Of birds, that flit and call, and answer sweet 
From moss-hid nests, where wrathful surges beat 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

Before, and sea-birds, circling slantingwise, 
Dipped down the yellow surf with shrilly cries. 

Forgotten now of emperor and king, — 
Yet as the incense o'er the altar waits, 

Though long ago the censer ceased to swing, — 
A legendary light illuminates 
Her silent palaces, whose empty gates, 

Forsaken of their guests, no hand again 

Shall ever ope to sun or bar to rain. 

And save that shrine of him, the bard divine, 
No good thing tempts the pilgrim's wandering 
way 



FRANCESCA 01' RIMINI. 

Within her narrow streets ; no longer shine 
The lights of midnight revel, — all the gay 
And happy songs are dead upon her gray 
Still lips, that fortune, fickle lover, oft 
In other days had thrilled with kisses soft. 

Nor aught is heard of music in her streets, 
Save here perchance a maiden singing o'er 

Her work : the pulse of life responsive beats 
No more to stirring sounds of peace or war, 
For this the peace that dwells within hei 
door 

Is that which hovers o'er the chilling clay 

Ere yet the spirit passeth quite away. 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 7 

II. 

Now in that long gone time of which men tell, 
Within a smiling chamber, where the rays 

Of loving suns last lingered and first fell, 

A maiden stands, and looks with dreamy gaze 
Across the sunclad sea, and level lays, 

That stretch beneath the lattice window wide, 

In the still sleep of summer eventide. 

Nor sees the purple haze upon the height, 

The curved-horned cattle browsing on the downs, 

The slim acacia-hedges, flowering white 

In slender lines between the gray-walled towns, 
The grain-fields gilding their tiara crowns 



3 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

Where first the river, winding wearily, 
Tastes the salt kisses of the waiting sea. 

Her wide soft eyes looked out beyond the rim 
Of hill and sea, as to some far land green 

With spring, where, revery leading, made them 
dim 
With happy tears too shy to fall, or e'en 
Some wondrous note of sweetness unforeseen 

Had wakened in the heart that, half afraid. 

Enraptured heard the song itself had made. 

And dreaming still, till all the mellow flood 
Of color touched and vanished as a cry 



FRAKCESCA OF RFMINI. 9 

Beyond the vineyard-terraced hills, she stood 
As in a vision ; and across the sky 
The white moon, stately as a princess, high 
Amid a thousand stars, moved silently, 
Her silver traihng dress upon the sea : 

Then folded up her dream in her deep heart, 

And waking, blushed to know it hidden there. 
For Guido, Lord of Cervia, apart, 

In suddenwise, within his daughter's hair 
Had set a blossom only one may wear : 
And all the day as one who slept and dreamed, 
And waked to dream her dream again, she 
seemed. 



lO FRANCE SC A OF RIMINI. 

And all the day a wistful yearning, sweet 
And pitiful, alas! and sharp surprise, 

And timid dread of that she would not meet 
Yet would not lose, was mingled in her eyes, 
Hope answering to fear in soft replies. 

O little Heart ! that throbs and beats, who may 

Translate thy music or thy tumult weigh ! 

Within the sunny garden of her life, 

Where only murmuringwise upon her ears 

Fell undiscerned the turmoil of men's strife, 
What should she know of all the sin and 

tears 
That stain the purple raiment of the years; 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. \ 

Of love made loathing, and of mocked desire, 
Of mould within the seed, that wastes as fire 

Erewhile it blooms, of all the ills that blight 
Ere foolish hope be wholly turned to scorn. 

The little space and span of man's delight. 
For in her heart each image fair was born, 
As flowers, standing in the doors of morn, 

Ere yet the lurking shadows, one by one, 

Gather and deepen in the noontide sun. 

So must it be, — for if to him who first 

The toilsome way begun, were told the sin, 
The pain, the shame, the hunger and the thirst, 



12 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

How should he dare the journey to begin ! 

How would he rather choose again to win 
That rest serene, whence coming, man but may 
Return, nor break its slumber by a day ! 



I I I. 

Divided then was all that land. Within 
Her door the good wife trembling saw afar 

The flash of shields. A little gold to win 

The sword was drawn, nor loth were hands to mar 
What lips had sworn. And Guido, long at war, 

And fearing oaths but lightly pledged, would fain 

With holier vows the new-made truce maintain. 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. j^ 



But one whose crafty counsel in the things 

Of state he sought, made answer thus : " Beware, 

O fiiend, of this that thou wilt do. The wings 
Of love are strong and free, and were he heir, 
This Malatesta lord, to virtues rare 

As brilliants chosen for a royal crown. 



Well at their setting might a maiden frown. 



*' Now if this man she see, nor I, nor thou, 

Shall move her mind to wed with him. But 
let 

His brother Paulo come to take the vow. 
That thus a maiden's fancies may not set 
At naught thy pleasure, and new perils yet 

2 



H 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI, 



The state assail." And thus unwittingly 
Came Paulo, with a goodly company, 

And gifts, the lily of the land to wed. 

And so it happened that as down the street 

That 'neath the palace windows winding led. 
With tumult of men's voices and the feet 
Of horses, passed the train, in shy retreat, 

Francesca, with her maids, behind the half 

Closed lattice stood. To whom with merry 
laugh 

One said : " Lo, lady, this is he, thy lord." 
Who, when with timid wondering to prove 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINT. 1 5 

Her dreams, she saw him thus in such accord 

Therev/ith, straightway from that time forth her 

love 
In him she placed, nor knew what snare was wove 

About her way, nor dreamed that love made sin 



Should all the song make mute her heart within. 



Full oft the perfect gift of happy days, 

That dazzling pass as stars across our sky, 

Is the sweet after- thought, that still delays 
When low the stars 'neath the horizon lie, 
And all the tumult of oar joy 's gone by. 

Below the world's far edge dips from our view 

The sun, but leaves behind his softest hue. 



1 5 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

So in some twilight chamber of our lives, 
Oft watch we peaceful with a memory 

Sweet as the long passed rapture it survives. 
And oft Francesca in the days to be, 
Should clothe herself again in fantasy. 

With robes of white and pearls, o'"t hear again 

The dim vaults echo back the deep refrain 

Of chanting choir, should feel anew the faint 
Breath of the censer steal, a holy spell, 

About her soul, and feign the sweet constraint 
That mingled with the joy she could not 

tell 
The rapture of a kiss might but dispel. 



FRANCE SCA OF RIMINI. ly 



Beneath the gate's wide span, where overhead, 
Half white on field of azure, and half red 

On field of gold, the eagle shone, oft should 
She pass, and with her lover seek anew 

The selfsame fields and summer-scented wood 
That once before, with merry retinue 
Of laughter and of song, they journeyed 
through, 

Till, counting thus of bliss her little store, 

She comes, as on that festal night, once more 

The wonder of all eyes, girt round with praise. 
The circling sheen of pearls upon her bare 



8 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

White throat, as 'twere not tinted by the rays 
Of southern suns, and yellower her hair 
Than was the golden fillet twining there ; 

And in her face a hVht divine, as one 



Who called of Heaven knows her refuge won. 



And long they say throughout that land was 
told 
How unto men she came, a breath of some 

Forgotten sweetness lost to life grown old ; 
A glimmer of the dawn and fields abloom, 
To light within the heart's long darkened room 

The faces of the dead, that moulder not 

As things of earth, but slumbering, forgot 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. jq 



Of men, wait for the issue of the night. 
O life ! that hath for love so little ruth ; — 

For love is more than life, though life should blight 
All sweet false dreaming with its bitter truth, 
And all that makes the paradise of youth. 

Dissolve as clouds, that gild the morning's train 

With golden fleece, to melt at night in rain. 

And all that night, though love were slain, the 
sea 
Played with the shadows of the stars, heedless 

The nightingale his midnight melody 

Outpoured, and through the summer quietness. 
Unbroken, save where in the bay's recess, 



20 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

Secure at last, the weary boatmen furled 

With song their glistening sails, slept on the world. 

High 2ip the mountain slope ^ 
TJie frailest blossoms ope 
To mornijtgdezv, and hide in rest 
At night npon the crater s breast. 

Close in the narrow path, 

That no side turning hath, 

A shining angel waits, 7ior saith 

To him who conies, My kiss is death I 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 21 

IV. 

Though in Its circuit summer wind should see 

The death of summer flowers, it would not stay ; 
Beneath the winter snow, as joyously 
The river runs as when, in time of May, 
The grasses stooped to hear what it should say. 
In bright dim gates of birth alone a cry 
Is born, and in the gates of death a sigh. 

That with the voice of Nature has no kin ; 

There is no place in all her wide domain 
For one regretful tear ; only within 

The spirit infinite is room for pain. 

So stir of life no heaviness can chain, 



22 FRANCESCA OF RTMINL 

And softly coming dawn returned, and dumb 
Night, waking, broke anew in song. So come 

The days as women beautiful in dreams : 

Each with her handmaids two, — sweet Joy, whose 
smile. 

Bespeaking unto men heaven's pity, seems 
To wrap the world in peace, as seas the isle : 
But in her shadow, as a veil the while, 

Walks Sorrow, silent and unseen of all, 

Save those on whom perchance her sad eyes fall. 

Day follows hard the night. The rocks make haste 
To clothe a little while their barren breasts ; 



FRANC ESC A OF RIMINI. 23 

The buds swell swiftly, for the winds that waste 
Are stirring in the north. A thousand nests 
Are building fast, wherein a new world rests 
But so to gain a little strength of wing, 
To follow on the footsteps of the spring. 

So swift the whirling wheel it seems to stand : 
Each broken life, as dreams that caught in 
sleep 

Still go before, weaves on the endless strand. 
Men listen for the voice of them that weep, 
But still and smooth as waters where they leap 

The gulf, the flowing sea gives back no sound ; — 

Not yet the secret told, the answer found. 



24 



FRANC ESC A OF RIMINI. 



For this the gods are kind, that men may see 
Some footprints on the sliding sands of space, 

But not the wondrous feet : — some shadows flee 
As clouds that pass above and leave no trace. 
Some far-off light, but not the hidden face: 

May catch some dim strange strain no waiting ear 

May understand, for this the gods are dear. 

V. 

Rich food for many tongues that bridal proved, 
For straightway knew all men how she w^as wed 

To Guianciotto, and not him she loved. 
And if some hearts awhile sweet pity led, 
As little waves, stirred in their shallow bed 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



25 



Alike by breeze and tempest, soon are still, 
So scarce a day such things their hearts did fill. 

For cruel waking on that morn she had, 

When first her husband's face with shrinking eyes 

She knew, and 'gan within her heart once glad 
With all the merry world might bring, to rise 
A loathing fear of that she fain would prize. 

And from the fields above, the waters all^ 

So sweet unto her lips, seemed touclied with gall. 

" Ah me !" she cried, " that I may finish fast 

The bitter draught life's narrowing rim clasps 
round, 

3 



26 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

And SO that pearl of peace I gain at last, 
That not in all the flowers its margin bound, 
But only in its dark drained depth is found." 

Strange ! how each one some time upon life's way, 

How fair soever then it be, how gray 

Soe'er it stretches to the mist-hung west. 

Knows well that there within the dusk, not here, 

Though fair sky stoop to fairer fields, is rest. 
Intent on matters to his heart more dear 
Than woman's love, her lord, they say who near 



These twain were, might not know a woman's 



need; 
He saw her face, yet seeing might not read, 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 2 7 



Her scorn, but not her tears. " Forsooth, she hath 
Been overreached," he said, " the jewelled store 

Of Malatesta's bride will stay the wrath 

Of her soft eyes." And jesting lightly o'er 
A maiden's fancies, soon the brief days wore 

That he should tarry with her, and anon 

To a far land he governed he was gone. 



So seemed the worst thing done ; and summer 



wrought 
From hill to belt of sea its dress of green, 
And to that land glad gifts the autumn brought. 
Yet had the lapse of hours no spell to wean 
Her sad, enduring thought from what had been. 



28 FRANCE SC A OF RIMINL 

Above her golden cushion still she hears 
The pulse of love, and broiders only tears. 

No idle talk of maids might mar for her 

The dream that in her lute's low music fled, 

Of what should be, when from the sepulchre 

The stone were rolled, and Love were in Fate's 

stead. 
Haply within the awful hush of dead 

Desires, when men no longer fain would know 

Whither at night the red suns silent go, 

Some peace, a peace of vanished hopes, may hide. 
But solitude for her was as the breath 



FRANCE SC A OF RIMINI. 29 



Of spring to quicken what perchance had died. — 
A tomb wherein as one none comforteth, 
She entered with the dead and watched with 
death, 
And set against her woe the joy she might 
Not leave, a thing forgotten in the night. 

For though an angel, pleading, to her lips 
Had borne a draught so peaceful and so deep 

That all her pain had found therein eclipse, 

Yet had she deemed it still more sweet to keep 
The memories that stirred her troubled sleep 

As with the tremor of a kiss, whose thrill 

She had not known till lips and heart were still. 

3* 



30 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



For so, scarce conscious of our joy, we wait 
Expectant, looking for some better guest, 

As he who sees the moving clouds too late, 
Alas ! too late, turn golden in the west ; 
Or sudden feels the odorous breath, when pressed 

Beneath his feet, the flower yields at last 



The fragrance round his life it fain had cast. 



No more the palace seemed a bridal-place ; 
Masking nor feast Francesca's presence knew ; 

And if some time perchance men saw her face 
When to the garden close she slowly drew. 
Where dark upon the brown moss thickest 
grew 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 31 



The shade, such trouble seemed thereon to bide, 
As only death within its peace may hide. 

Goodly that pleasance was ; its border fringed 
With yellow grass the sea that ofttimes flung 



Therein the flakes of salt froth, amber tinged, 



And on the sloping reach of pebbles sung 
The selfsame yearning song, as first amonc 
The sleeping hills and shallow shining bars, 
Unheard, it whispered to the new-lit stars. 

Beyond were shadowed spaces of a wood. 



Low boughed, where on the river's edge of 



sand, 



22 FRANCE SC A OF RIMINI. 



Waist-deep and scarcely stirred, the sedges stood, — 
And blossoms, strewn as by a sower's hand, 
Sailed out into the open pasture-land, 
Where like a white arm wound about the lea, 
The river kept the meadows from the sea. 

There might she hear, among the wind-blown 
boughs. 
Such sounds as fain would set her feet in 
some 
New place, beyond the far hills' lifted brows, — 
Whereto the limbs above, with gesture dumb, 
Swayed beckoning, and the swift stream cried, 
Come ! 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 33 

And on its bosom floating to the sea 

The blossoms answered, Follow, follow me. 

O Nature ! Sweet to every stricken one, 

Thy voices, infinite in harmony. 
Chant secret things of peace. And thou alone 

Shalt lull to slumber, motherwise, all cry 

Of pain, e'en as at last so tenderly 
Thou gatherest our honor or our shame 
Unto thy silent bosom whence we cai^e. 

For though the moaning sea moan not its 
dead, 
And all the glistening tears about the mound 



34 



FRANC ESC A OF RIM I NT. 



Of blessed dust are but the cold dew shed 
From out a colder sky, yet have men found 
No waywise voice like to that solemn sound 
Of waves, than the sweet earth no breast 
So soft, whereon to lay their lips at rest. 

VI. 

And thus it fell that Paulo from the chase 

Passed in the gloaming of the wood, till through 

The flowering thorn he brake unto a space 

That scarce all day the summer sunshine knew, — 
And sudden as within the place he drew, 

Beheld her first since on that night of shame, 

Girt round with wonder and with praise she came. 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 3^ 

Face unto face awhile in the dim wood, 

So near that he might see the white pearls rise 

And tremble in her loosened gown, they stood, — 
Such sudden light within her yearning eyes, 
As made those joyless days in some sweet wise 

As dreams, of a long-ending night and drear, 

That sudden fails from dusk to dawn, appear. 

Nay ! was it strange his eager hands reached out 
Unto his love, unto his sweet, and thus 

At last the wasting pain, the fiery drought. 

Should cease, — strange that her kind eyes mar- 
vellous 
Stirred all his heart with longingr, tremulous 



36 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



As fear, pulsing as pain, — that he should buy 
One little hour of love with life and die! 

Like the fair blossoming edge of heaven's shore, 
Only a daised path between lay low ; 

Yet he moved not, for e'en such fear passed 
o'er 
Her troubled face as love alone may know, — 
As shrinking back, yet with sad step and slow, 

Pleading yet mute, in the dim shuddering light 

She moved, a fading vision, from his sight. 

Long time he stood, yet as one seeing naught 
About him, or how 'gan the day among 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 37 

The hollows of the hills to sleep. Fulfraught 

With the sweet treasures of far fields, scarce hung 
The bees above the folding flowers, scarce swung 
In topmost branches the hushed nests, and dim 
Were grown the shadows on the river's rim. 

But in his ears, though lonesome was the place, 

Were sounds confused of laughter and of mirth, 
And in his eyes a well-beloved face, 

And in his heart, as flowers that have their 

birth 
In waste forgotten places of the earth, 
Sweet flickering memories; till once again 
He heard the bridal song, and twain by twain, 

4 



3S 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



Fair hand in hand, the white-clad maids, at last 
With lingering steps that scarce the measured 
strain 

Might keep, from the bride-chamber slowly passed ; 
And with strange shame and fear, sweet unto pain, 
He heard soft footfalls of the passing train, 

As voice by voice the joyous song decreased, 

Until at last footfall and singing ceased, — 

Then woke, to hear the unremembering wind 
Moan to the river lapping on its shore 

Of reeds, and far through gathering mist and blind 
Th' incoming sea send sullen answer o'er 
Its sands, and waking, knew that evermore 



FRANCESCA OF RIM INT. 

His love the measure of her woe should be, 
The wound that fleeing still she might not flee. 

Love ! the sea is deep whence thou wast born, 
And in thine eyes betimes such szueet light hides, 

As of dint depths zvhere night and noon are morn ; 
Beneath the bosom of its fitful tides 
Men say indissoluble peace abides, — 

And yet so swift thy shifting lights, ah me I 

Who knows, zvho knozvs, if so or no it be ? 

Love ! thy croivn is laughter, and the foam 

Of sun-loved seas is round thy feet. Thy breath 
Ls as the breath of ivinds that have their home 



39 



40 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



In siinnner loving lands , foi-got of deatli, — 
Soft zvinds^ that stir the reach of purple heath 
With sighing sounds of restfulness or woe, — 
Ah me ! who knows if so it be or no ? 

Below the glitter of thy sea, Love, 
Men say the dead iiinnvierable lie ; 

And that the red rose paler blooms above 

The lonesome grave, and winds that wander by, 
Linger about the home of them that die : 

But thoit art glad, as they who no death knozu, 

Ah me I zuho kiiows if it be so or no ? 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



41 



V 1 1. 

Within the palace is a room beneath 

Whose window, at its weary journey's end, 
The quiet river sleeps. Their sweetest breath 
The distant groves within its lattice send, — 
Around its sunny oriel casement bend 
The blossoming vines, amid whose moving shades 
A woman sits, and weaves her silken braids 

In patterns not less delicate than they. 

She does not hear without the boatman's song, 

Nor yet the oar's soft plash and dripping play, 
But oft the pauses of her work among, 
Her sad eyes turn to one who reads the wrong 



42 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



That shamed King Arthur's court. And as the 



strain 
Reveals the King, great-hearted, without stain, 

She thinks of him, her lord, — not like, ah ! no, 
Not like to him, — and that for her had been 

No happy bowers of Usk or Camelot, 

No love, no faith as had that faithless Queen, 
But only treachery, and hate between 

A pity and a scorn. And in that dumb 

Far past she saw again her lover come 

With music down the crowded streets, once more 
She lived that gala day of joy, and rode 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 43 

Beside him through the open city door, 
As out into a world new made of God. 
What cruel way would not her feet, unshod 
And bleeding, press, if so she might but gain 
At last from mist of tears and fire of pain 

But one such day ! The children, what a voice 

Of merriment was theirs that bridal morn ! 
What strange new life that bade the world rejoice ! 
What keener sight, as though Heaven's veil were 

torn 
And a new Paradise for man were born 1 
Almost she were content that Queen to be, 
If but again such things her eyes might see. 



44 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



The golden threads lay idle in her hands : — 

Full breasted as a flood, whose glistening spray 

Leaves but the wreck within its waste of sands, 
So came these memories of another day, 
And passed the present woe but to betray. 

Poor Heart ! that hadst indeed laid love at rest, 



But wrought its tomb within thine own warm breast. 



For here it chanced he read of the Queen's smile 
When kissed of Launcelot, and reading, still 

Was conscious of her gaze, and felt the while 
The subtle spell whose influences thrill 
From heart to heart in cunning ways where 
will 



FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 



45 



Is slave, and lifting from the page apace 
His eyes, beheld, alas ! her radiant face. 

So moving down that vale, whose end they knew, 
Of sweetest flowers and sharpest thorns, came 
they 

At last thereto ; and waiting Rumor through 
The air took wing upon her doleful way. 
So, clothed in scorn or pity, shall men say 

On thee the blight of Eden too must cling, 



O Love ! thou Jester, that wast born a King ! 



O ye who leave the world a stainless name, 
And sitting peaceful on the splendid heights, 



46 FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. 

Behold it shine amid the years, a flame 
As of the stars, whose everlasting lights 
Burn unexhausted through eternal nights. 
How have ye wrought within life's scanty days 
Of toil, with mortal hands, immortal praise ! 

O fool ! Here is no marvel ; straight and true 
The slender threads the web of exquisite 

Design run through, or ravelling, all undo. 
And from time's little span, in rhythmic flight, 
The hours rejoin the pulsings infinite. 

With wail discordant, or in melody 

Sweet voiced, as birds that seek the upper sky. 












^^ 

















